Before Farming: the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers

ref: Before Farming 2004/4 article 2

Some reflections on the spread of food-production in southernmost Africa

Peter Mitchell
School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, St Hugh's College
Oxford, OX2 6LE, United Kingdom
peter.mitchell@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk

Keywords: Southern Africa, food-production, hunter-gatherers, Neolithic Europe

Abstract

The spread of food-production in Europe preceded the arrival of farming and herding ways of life in southern Africa by several millennia. Examining the two side-by-side within a comparative context may nonetheless be of value. This paper draws on recent syntheses of the neolithisation of Europe to identify areas within which southern African research on the development and history of food-producing societies, and of their hunter-gatherer predecessors and neighbours, may be developed.

ref: Before Farming 2004/4 article 3

Comparing contact-period archaeologies: the expansion of farming and pastoralist societies to continental temperate Europe and to southern Africa

Detlef Gronenborn
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Ernst-Ludwig Platz 2, D-55116 Mainz, Germany
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Schönborner Hof,
D-55116 Mainz, Germany
gronenborn@rgzm.de

Keywords: Temperate Europe, southern Africa, culture contact, spread of farming

Abstract

Despite many similarities in methodology and interconnections in research history no overall comparison between the spread of farming to southern African (the Bantu expansion) and temperate continental Europe (the Bandkeramik expansion) has yet been attempted. This article reviews the current state of research in both regions and discusses possible avenues for future mutual scholarly debates.

ref: Before Farming 2004/4 article 4

Pitsaneng: evidence for a neolithic Lesotho?

John Hobart
Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PP, United Kingdom
john.hobart@prm.ox.ac.uk

Keywords: Lesotho, Later Stone Age, pastoralism, hunter-gatherers, exchange

Abstract

This paper uses the excavations carried out in 2000 at the site of Pitsaneng in the Lesotho highlands to bring together an argument for a more extensive and diverse trade and exchange network involving Lesotho than has previously been acknowledged. It is proposed that the Lesotho highlands' involvement in these networks led to the development of a 'new stone age', which may have included the practice of small scale pastoralism by stone age herder-hunter-gatherers in Lesotho prior to the arrival of Sotho farming communities in the late nineteenth century.

ref: Before Farming 2004/4 article 5

Between the first herders and the last herders: are the Khoekhoe descendants of the Neolithic 'hunters-with-sheep'?

François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Institut d'Etudes Africaines, Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme, 5 rue du Château de l'horloge, BP 647,
13094 Aix-en-Provence cedex 2, France
fauvelle@mmsh.univ-aix.fr

Keywords: Neolithic, Khoekhoe, pastoralism, husbandry, milking

Abstract

Recent publications have led us to re-assess the issue of the introduction of food-production in southern Africa. While some researchers have proposed new models for the spread of domestic stock and ceramics throughout the sub-continent, Karim Sadr suggests that we should re-introduce the concept of Neolithic to describe the appearance of low-intensity herding groups in the context of the Later Stone Age c 2000 BP. Following the path whereby Sadr disconnects the material culture associated with Neolithic herders from the historically-known Khoekhoe, one might ask again: where do the latter came from? Starting from ethnographic comparisons of two Khoekhoe husbandry techniques, it appears that the Khoekhoe can be seen as 'true pastoralists' possessing a complete 'pastoralist package' of cultural practices that are not readily visible in the archaeological record. This brings us to reconsider the possibility of a separate and late migration of the Khoekhoe in South Africa.